Bobby Jindal on Principles & Values

Republican Governor; previously Representative (LA-1)

OpEd: Appeals to both Ivy League-coasts and Bible Belt

America needs a leader to bridge the widening gulf between faith and science, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a devout Roman Catholic with Ivy League-level science training, thinks he can be that person.

As a studious man of immigrant background
with the kind of credentials admired by coastal intellectual meritocrats--Brown, Oxford and McKinsey & Company--the Republican governor, at least on paper, has a chance to appeal to the middle, should he run for president in 2016.
He also has an impressive record as a government bureaucrat and administrator, both in Washington and in Baton Rouge.

Yet given his own deep faith and his roots in the Bible Belt, Jindal's early focus will be on wooing evangelical Christians
and others on the cultural right.

If he can solve this Rubik's Cube of religious belief and scientific trust, he may not only do the country a favor; he might reach the White House.

Washington is waging "silent war" against religious liberty

Gov. Bobby Jindal told religious conservatives that the Obama administration has been waging a war on religion and a "hostile takeover" of Washington is imminent: "I can sense right now a rebellion brewing amongst these United States,
where people are ready for a hostile takeover of Washington, D.C., to preserve the American Dream for our children and grandchildren." Jindal said during the annual Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington.

Jindal said there was a "silent war" against religious liberty: "I am tired of the left. They say they're for tolerance, they say they respect diversity. The reality is this:
They respect everybody unless you happen to disagree with them," he said. "The left is trying to silence us and I'm tired of it, I won't take it anymore."

Washington is waging "silent war" against religious liberty

Gov. Bobby Jindal told religious conservatives that the Obama administration has been waging a war on religion and a "hostile takeover" of Washington is imminent: "I can sense right now a rebellion brewing amongst these
United States, where people are ready for a hostile takeover of Washington, D.C., to preserve the American Dream for our children and grandchildren."
Jindal said during the annual Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington.

Jindal said there was a "silent war" against religious liberty: "I am tired of the left. They say they're for tolerance, they say they respect diversity.
The reality is this: They respect everybody unless you happen to disagree with them," he said. "The left is trying to silence us and I'm tired of it, I won't take it anymore."

Parents accepted my conversion; but they are actively Hindu

Q: What was your parents reaction when you told them you were becoming a Christian?

A: At first, they were very, very concerned. I'm a parent and I put myself in their shoes: 'Your teenage son comes home and says he is changing his religion.
At first your reaction is--'Is this just a fad? Is he doing it for a girl? Will it wear off?' Second, you wonder, 'Is he joining a cult?' Third you wonder, 'Is he rejecting us?' I think they finally got to acceptance. By the time they attended our
wedding and our kids' baptisms, they are very proud to be there. But still they are actively Hindu.

Q: What led you to join the Catholic Church while a student at Brown University?

A: There were a couple of things that drew me to Catholicism.
One was the sacraments, and I felt a hunger for the sacraments. The other was the history and tradition of the church. I got baptized in Providence (without family present); I didn't want to cause them any more heartache than I had already caused.

We can't just be the party of no

Q: You said last year, "we've got to stop being the stupid party." Well, how is that going?

JINDAL: That was an RNC audience. And you can tell there was some nervous laughter when I said that. I've got Op-Ed coming out tomorrow: we can't just be the
party of no. As a party, we've got good solutions. Why not delay all of the mandates in ObamaCare? Why not approve the Keystone Pipeline today? The Republican Party needs to be all about growth, opportunity, creating good paying private sector jobs.

Dems are for government expansion & economic contraction

Jindal encouraged Republicans to focus their efforts on ensuring America could once again become a land of opportunity, while seeming to advise that efforts at fiscal restraint should be directed at the most egregious examples of government waste, noting
that Obama would never be able to give enough tax money to his green-energy cronies to create prosperity. "As conservatives, we must dedicate our energies and efforts to growing America," Jindal said.

He portrayed this goal as more realistic than a
bitter struggle for control of Washington, given the results of recent elections, and the booby prize awarded to the victors of such a struggle. "If our end goal is to simply better manage the disaster that is the federal government, you can count me
out. I'm not signing up for that. Who here wants to sign up for managing the decline of America?"

He said he was content to allow the Democrats to remain the party of government expansion and economic contraction.

We've got to stop being the stupid party

Q: This week you really saw Republicans start to say who are we and what did we do wrong the last time out? Haley Barbour says we should have won the presidential election. Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, boy, he laid it out on the line:

GOV.
BOBBY JINDAL, R-LA.: We've got to stop being the stupid party. It's no secret we had a number of Republicans that damaged the brand this year with offensive and bizarre comments. I'm here to say we've had enough of that.

NEWT GINGRICH: You know, it's
ironic. In 1976, Irving Kristol wrote an essay for The Wall Street Journal entitled "The Stupid Party," which I commend to every Republican. Ronald Reagan came along with Jack Kemp and they basically moved us back to being an idea-oriented party.
I think we clearly have to change. When you lose Latinos by 71%; you lose Asian- Americans by 74%; you lose people under 30; you lose single women--I mean, you go down the list. Except for 2004, with an incumbent, we have not won a majority since 1988.

Journey from Hinduism to Christianity began in high school

My parents naturally assumed I would remain a Hindu, but knew I was investigating Christianity. My journey to Christianity accelerated at the end of my sophomore year in high school when my grandfather died suddenly of a stroke. At one point, I bought
"Cliff's Notes to the Bible", to help me make sense of it.

My questions continued until a church at LSU showed a simple film about the crucifixion. I had studied that momentous event, yet watching that film I suddenly realized that Christ was on the
cross because of me--my sins--what I had done, what I had failed to do. This was my epiphany. He didn't die for billions, which was so abstract, but because of me. Suddenly, God was tangible.

In the summer of 1987 I knelt in prayer and accepted Christ
as my Savior. For a year I postponed telling my parents.

My path to Christianity was an intellectual journey followed by a leap of faith. It took me years, and at the end of it I concluded that the historical evidence for Christianity was overwhelming

I'm a son of the Deep South

The national media tends to misunderstand Louisiana. You will not find a more giving, generous group of people anywhere on the face of the earth, and this extends beyond all the racial, class, partisan, or religious lines.

National reporters have often said to me, "It must have been so tough for you growing up in the Deep South." To which my response is, "Um.no. It was not tough, in fact it was tremendous. I'm a son of the
Deep South, so you can keep your prejudices to yourself." Louisiana is my home and I'm proud of it.

I've never had it tough, but my dad did. He grew up in
India, the only one of nine children to get beyond the fifth grade. For me, growing up middle-class in Louisiana was anything but tough. Compared to my father, I grew up in great riches, because I grew up in America.

Elite harbor condescending view of people of faith

Having attended Brown University, studied at Oxford, and served in the highest levels of government, I have spent a great deal of time interacting with folks who would be classified as our country's "elites." I've found many of these folks, who
predominately reside in the Boston-New York-Washington corridor, harbor a condescending view of people of faith.

To this day, it surprises me how little the national press understands about faith. When I was serving in Washington,
I had lunch with a well-known reporter. Before we ate she saw me bow my head and say grace, ever so briefly mind you. She immediately asked me if everything was okay. She was startled and fascinated by what I had done. And the fact that it startled her
startled me. She was not rude or condescending. She just didn't have any frame of reference for a person who would say grace in a public restaurant before lunch. But some of our top national reporters ARE condescending, & it goes beyond matters of faith.

2009 Obama response speech: I blew it

I was selected to give the Republican response to Pres. Obama's first speech to Congress in Feb. 2009, a time when the president was still extremely popular. Republican leaders in Washington knew me or had read good things about me, so they thought
I would be a good choice to give the Republican Party response. Turns out they were wrong. I blew it.

Truth be told, I have never mastered the teleprompter. In fact, I hate the teleprompter. And as the country found out that night, the teleprompter
hates me, too.

So here you have me, a guy who is "teleprompter challenged," versus the king of the teleprompter. Bad match up. My delivery was just awful. Even though it's never been done before, I should have just winged the response. The press savage
my performance.

The bottom line is this: it was my speech, I delivered it poorly, and I take full responsibility for it. When you screw up, it's time to man up. Interestingly, many people who heard the speech, but did not see it, thought it was great.

Mother was pregnant with him when parents arrived from India

Regardless of party, all Americans are moved by the president's personal story--the son of an American mother and a Kenyan father, who grew up to become leader of the free world. Like the president's father, my own parents came to this country from a
distant land. When they arrived in Baton Rouge, my mother was already 4-months pregnant. I was what folks in the insurance industry now call a "pre-existing condition." To find work, my dad picked up the yellow pages and started calling local businesses.
Even after landing a job, he could still not afford to pay for my delivery, so he worked out an installment plan with the doctor. Fortunately for me, he never missed a payment.

As I grew up, my mom & dad taught me the values that attracted them to this
country, and they instilled in me an immigrant's wonder at the greatness of America. As a child, my dad would tell me: "Bobby, Americans can do anything." I still believe that to this day: When we pull together, there is no challenge we can't overcome.

The GOP controls the Senate by just one vote. Even with today’s margin, the GOP doesn’t have effective control of the agenda as the Democrats use the filibuster to kill pro-growth reform or crucial judicial appointments. The next Senate could confirm two U.S. Supreme Court justices.

If the Republicans do manage to pick up a few extra seats in the Senate, there could also be an ideological shift toward pro-growth issues. Right now, the balance of power is in the hands of the RINO Republicans like Olympia Snowe and Arlen Specter. With a seat pick-up for the GOP, plus the addition of GOP superstars, Olympia and Arlen would no longer be deciding votes. We could move away from watered-down Republicanism toward a genuine pro-growth agenda.

Members of the Club are economic conservatives, like-minded political contributors who are frustrated with the ideological drift of both parties today. Club members have a shared goal of contributing to and electing more Reaganites to Congress who are willing to stand for the issues like: cutting taxes, controlling federal spending, personal accounts for Social Security, ending the death tax, eliminating the capital gains tax, fundamental tax reform, providing true school choice and minimizing government's role in our daily lives.

The stakes are mighty high in the Senate elections. That’s why we’re providing you now with our outlook for every competitive Senate race and a list of our top tier choices. The “A” List Candidates make this list because their races are competitive and they are the very best on economic issues. The “B” List Candidates are all in hotly contested races too, but they are not as rock solid on economic growth issues.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.
AU is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to preserving the constitutional principle of church-state separation as the only way to ensure religious freedom for all Americans.

Americans United is a national organization with members in all 50 states. We are headquartered in Washington, D.C., and led by the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director. AU has more than 75,000 members from all over the country. They include people from all walks of life and from various faith communities, as well as those who profess no particular faith. We are funded by donations from our members and others who support church-state separation. We do not seek, nor would we accept, government funding.